Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix social media

Re:Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix ... by k1rd on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @08:38PM (#31267880)

The way WhatsApp used to make money was through a subscription model. It cost $1 to download and then $1 a year going forward. Facebook eventually removed the $1 fee and made WhatsApp a free service, I paid that Dollar!

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Re:Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix ... by umeshunni on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @08:49PM (#31267953)

Yeah, I think former head of business at Whatsapp, who you're replying to, knows that.

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Re:Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix ... by gunapologist99 on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @11:24PM (#31269041)

I thought it was free to install and didn't charge $1 until the following year?

EDIT: looks like it was $1 on IOS and free everywhere else: https://venturebeat.com/2012/12/03/facebook-whatsapp-talks/

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Re:Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix ... by DocTomoe on Thursday May 05, 2022 @03:25AM (#31270573)

Knowing Apple, I expect that one dollar installation fee being pushed into their coffers, either directly (because the App Store is pay to play) or indirectly (because they force you to use Apple hardware to develop and push stuff onto the App Store)

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Re:Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix ... by aroraneeraj on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @08:49PM (#31267952)

right. Many around the world paid that 1$.

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Re:Former Facebook, WhatsApp employees lead new push to fix ... by skinnymuch on Wednesday May 04, 2022 @11:23PM (#31269034)

WhatsApp had 600M users. A dozen million people paying the $1 per year is many people. In the multiple threads about WhatsApp and the $1 charge, most people never paid anything. Looking at the revenue and everything, doesn’t seem like enough were paying.

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